Pathfinder - Druid Archetypes Breakdown

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Archetypes

The Druid is one of the most powerful and versatile classes in the game. Between
their excellent mix of offensive/support/utility spells, their animal companion, and
Wild Shape, the Druid can do basically everything but open locks and disable traps.
Unfortunately, many of the Druid archetypes are very similar. Reading this guide from
start to finish might be nearly as boring and repetetive as it was to write.

Apes are an interesting option, but the Ape SHaman doesn't give you any options
which are particularly good.

Nature Bond: Apes are a decent animal companion, and their
human-like anatomy makes them very versatile. If you don't want an ape for some reason,
you have a few good choices for domains.

Animal: I assume that you must still take an ape
if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it's no big loss.

Community (Family subdomain)

Destruction (Rage subdomain)

Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Not the best totem
transformation, but you get a few decent options.

Totemic Summons (Su): Apes are on Summon III, and Dire
Apes are on Summon IV, so you have a very limited range of summons.

Wild Shape (Su): You can turn into a Dire Ape immediately.
Because you have human-like anatomy, you may be able to use weapons and cast spells
with no verbal components. However, the Dire Ape is the best option available to you
at any level.

Bonus Feat: Nothing good here. Toughness is the best
option, which should indicate just how bad this list is.

As you would expect, the Arctic Druid is most effective in arctic environments.
If you are playing a campaign which doesn't take place mostly in an arctic
readion, skip the arctic druid.

Arctic Native (Ex): If your campaign takes place in
an arctic climate, this shoots right up to blue. The
bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.

Icewalking (Ex): Useful in the snow sometimes.

Arctic Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements is a first
level spell with an hours/level duration. Dazzled is the least annoying status
condition in the game.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting
it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Snowcaster (Su): The ability to change fire spells to
cold damage is great for a Druid; many of the Druid's direct damage spells deal fire
damage. The ability to switch to cold damage is very helpful for overcoming
resistances.

Flurry Form (Ex): Gaseous form is a third level spell, so
it's a bit disappointing to get this at such high level. However, it is still a
useful escape/infiltration mechanism.

Bats aren't big combatant, and this archetype makes that apparent. Instead of
trying to be a wild-shaping combat monster, fly around on your bat casting spells
and using ranged weapons. Use blindsight to locate invisible enemies for your
party. If you are in melee, you have messed up.

Nature Bond: The Bat isn't even listed as an animal
companion on the SRD. I would assume the Dire Bat is acceptable, which is good because
the Dire Bat is a really cool option. It gets blindsight and you can ride it while
flying. The domain list is pretty great, too.

Air

Animal: I assume that you must still take an ape
if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it's no big loss.

Darkness (Night subdomain)

Trickery (Deception subdomain)

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): Flight and blindsight!

Totemic Summons (Su): The Dire Bat is the only bat on
the summon list, and it's not a very good summon.

Wild Shape (Su): Aside from the flight (which you can
already do), and the blindsight (which you can already do), there is no reason to
transform into a bat.

Bonus Feat: With the exception of Improved Initiative,
there is very little here worth taking.

The Bear Shaman is very close to being good, but falls a bit short. Totem
Transformation is a really cool, flavorful ability, and I love the versatility of
summoning bears at almost any spell level. However, the limitations on Nature Bond
and the weakened version of Wild Shape really bring the archetype down.

Nature Bond: The bear isn't a
great choice for animal companion, and the domain selection is small and doesn't contain
a lot of good options.

Animal: I assume that you must still take a bear
if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain's overall power.

Earth

Protection

Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): This is a really cool buff
with three unique and interesting versions. If you are built for Wild Shape, the
natural weapons version can be a great way to get into melee before you get Wild Shape.
The rest of the time, toughness is a solid option. The ability to activate the bonus
with smaller actions at high levels is nice because you don't need to plan your
bonus before combat starts to save your standard actions.

Totemic Summons (Su): Way better than A Thousand Faces.
Bears aren't great animal companions, but summioning them is a pretty good choice for
Summon Natures ally. Naturally you might think "but if bears are bad animal companions,
why are they good summons?" Animal Companions don't get stats matching their original
animal. The Bear in particular has decent stats to start with, but falls off very
quickly compared to other choices. Summoned bears are full size bears with all of
their strength and damage and generally awesome bear-ness, and you can enhance
them to run the full range up to Summon VIII.

Wild Shape (Su): Unfortauntely, there are only four
bears that you can transform into: Black Bears (Medium; Beast Shape I), Grizzly Bears,
Polar Bears, and Dire Bears (All Large: Beast Shape II). At level 6 you can Wild Shape
as a level 8 Druid if you Wild Shape into a bear. A level 8 druid can Wild Shape as
Beast Shape II, so you can be a Dire Bear right from level 6. While it's certainly
nice to get Beast Shape II a level ahead of Wizards, the Bear isn't a very good
option for Wild Shape because it doesn't get any special abilities, and its damage
isn't good enough to offset the lack of Trip or Pounce. Losing two levels from your
other Wild Shape options also hurts.

Bonus Feat: A short list of fairly boring passive
feats. I would take toughness, Great Fortitude, then Improved Great Fortitude. There
really isn't. Diehard and Endurance just aren't very good.

The Blight Druid is a really cool concept. The abilities are a bit strange, but
Miasma and Plaguebearer could make for an excellent defender. Without acces to an
Animal Companion, the Blight Druid needs to be more self reliant, and more dependant
on spell in combat.

Nature Bond (Ex): While not as useful in combat as an
Animal Companion, Familiars make excellent scouts and
assistants. The Darkness, Death,
and Destruction domains are nice additions to the existing
Druid domain list.

Vermin Empathy (Su): I'm not sure why anyone would
ever want to be friends with vermin, but that's more of a personal problem. The ability
to calm vermin and undead animals it situational, but very interesting.

Miasma (Ex): Sickened and Nauseated are excellent status
conditions, and debuffing anyone unfortunate enough to stand next to you is very
helpful.

Blightblooded (Ex): Not as good as immunity to poison,
but nice to have.

Plaguebearer (Su): Blinding Sickness. Blinding Sickness
every time. This is a fantastic deterrant to anything foolish enough to touch you.

The Boar Shaman is perhaps the worst of the animal shaman archetypes. Board are
weak both as animal companions and as a Wild Shape choice, and the abilities provided
by the archetype are very weak compared to other animal shamans.

Nature Bond: Boars are some of the worst animal
companions, but your domain list is pretty good.

Animal: I assume that you must still take an ape
if you take the Animal domain, but apes are a decent choice so it's no big loss.

Destruction (Rage)

Protection

Strength

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Unless your GM makes special allowances to cater to your skillset, the Cave Druid
is only mediocre even while underground. Most of the replacement abilities are even
more situational than the abilities which they replace.

Cavesense (Ex): Knowledge (Dungeoneering) is miles better
than Knowledge (Geography).

Nature Bond: The Darkness
domain is decent, and the Air and Weather domains are fairly bad.

Wild Empathy (Ex): Very situational, and I don't know if
oozes are generally intelligent enough to have a "disposition".

Tunnelrunner (Ex): Very situational.

Lightfoot (Ex): Very situational, but better than
Trackless Step.

Resist Subterranean Corruption (Ex): Very situational.

Wild Shape (Su): Plant Form is garbage anyway, and
turning into an ooze could be very useful.

Desert Native (Ex): If your campaign takes place in
a desert climate, this shoots right up to blue. The
bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.

Sandwalker (Ex): Helpful in sandy environments.

Desert Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements is a first
level spell with an hours/level duration. Food and Water are hard to locate in a
desert, so the ability to go extended periods without them is excellent.

Wild Shape (Su): Plant form is awful, but you may be
able to find some useful vermin forms.

Shaded Vision (Ex): Immunity to blindness is nice
considering how debilitating it is. Resistance to gazes and visual illusions is
situational.

Dunemeld (Ex): Gaseous form is a third level spell, so
it's a bit disappointing to get this at such high level. However, it is still a
useful escape/infiltration mechanism.

This might be better called "dinosaur shaman". Aside from Dragon Bite, none of the
abilities really have anything to do with dragons. However, if you want to summon a
bunch of dinosaurs during every fight, this is the way to do it. Because dinosaurs
are lizards, this archetype largely eclipses the Saurian Shaman, even in terms of
Wild Shape.

Nature Bond: The crocodile is a solid options for your
animal companion, but the monitor lizard is terrible. The Dragon Shaman gets a
much longer list of potential domains than other animla shamans, but it's not
any better.

Air

Animal: I assume that you must still take a lizard
if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the
crocodile is still a decent choice.

Destruction

Earth

Fire

War

Water

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totemic Summons (Su): Assuming that dinosaurs count as
lizards, which is both scientifically accurate and awesome, you have a ton of options.
Dinosaurs run the whole range of summon levels, and the ability to add templates to
bring their summon level up or down can allow you to bring a tactically relevant
dinosaur into any fight at any level. Because dinosaurs are so much more diverse
than the animals allowed to other animal shamans, this ability is considerably better.

Wild Shape (Su): This is much weaker than the other
animal shamans. Deinonychus is a solid option, and stays reasonably useful at higher
versions of Beast Shape, but it won't keep up with things like Dire Tigers which
become available to other Druids more quickly.

Dragon Bite (Su): More damage is excellent, and you
can change the damage type every time you bite. Applying when you are Wild Shaped
is absolutely fantastic.

The Eagle shaman is a cool flavor with garbage stats. Eagles aren't scary in
combat, so turning yourself into one generally doesn't do you any good. However,
the Totem Transformation can get you some easy flight while you fly around
summoning piles of angry birds.

Nature Bond: The bird is a very
poor animal companion, and choice of domains really sucks.

Air

Animal: I assume that you must still take a bird
if you take the Animal domain, which really hurts the domain's overall power.

Nobility

Weather

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): While the other options are
poor, the flight option is fantastic.

Totemic Summons (Su): You can summon eagles from
Summon I-III, and a Giant Advanced Eagle might be a decent flying summon. Giant
Eagles aren't actually on the summon list for some reason. Young Rocs come into
play at Summon VI, and you can stretch Rocs all the way up to Summon IX, which
few other animal shaman archetypes can say. You have a few empty summon levels
in the middle, but you can summon multiples of lower-level summons to summon
a bunch of enhanced eagles.

Wild Shape (Su): This would be good if you could actually
Wild Shape into a Roc. Regretably, you can't, and the Eagle is a poor Wild Shape
choice.

Bonus Feat: None of the feats are particularly good.
Flyby attack is amusing, but because you can't Wild Shape into anything that flys and
does decent damage, you won't get much use out of it.

Feral Shifter gives up Nature Bond and a few of the Druid's less interesting
abilities to get the Hunter's Animal Focus ability. Unfortunately, Animal Focus is
considerably less powerful than Nature Bond, so this archetype makes the Druid
actively worse.

Animal Focus (Su): This is nowhere near as good as an
Animal Companion. The buffs are nice, especially if you like to use Wild Shape, but
the minutes per level duration won't get you through the day, and Druid has plenty of
spells which provide the same buffs.

Second Animal Focus (Su): Doubles the effectiveness of
Animal Focus, but doesn't fix the duration problem.

Jungle Guardian (Ex): If your campaign takes place in
a jungle environment, this shoots right up to blue. The
bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.

Woodland Stride (Ex): Very important for traversing
thick jungles, but not very exciting.

Torrid Endurance (Ex): Endure Elements is a first
level spell with an hours/level duration. The bonus against diseases is very strong,
but the resistance against animals' abilities is very situational.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting
it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Lions are pretty great. They're strong, they're fast, and they get both Pounce and
Rake. Now apply that to a Druid. Overall, the Lion Shaman is a great option for Druids
who like cats.

Nature Bond: Lions are excellent
animal companions, and your choice of domains has some good options.

Animal: I assume that you must still take a lion
if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the lion
is still a solid choice.

Glory

Nobility

Sun

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): All three of the options are
useful.

Totemic Summons (Su): Felines have a much bigger range
of summon levels than bears. The Dire Tiger is Summon VI before templates, and a
Giant Advanced Dire Tiger is goes all the way up to Summon VIII, where it is plenty
scary. Imagine a tiger the size of an elephant pouncing on things. Beautiful.

Wild Shape (Su): The best feline form you can get is the
Dire Tiger, which you get at level 6. This might sound disappointing, but you start
with Pounce, and you get to use Rake at level 7, two levels ahead of the rest of the
world.

Bonus Feat: Dodge and Lunge are solid choices for
polymorphing, but your will saves should be fantastic without Iron Will.

Stonehenge, the archetype. This is an interesting grab bag of vageuly spirit-related
abilities. Each of the abilities is interesting and useful, but there is nothing here
that you absolutely need to have. If you like the idea of a very spiritual druid, this
archetype has a fantastic flavor without appreciably changing the power level of the
druid.

Spirit Sense (Sp): Though somewhat situational, this is
surprisingly versatile. Also, the description is full of unnecesary semicolonds.

Place Magic (Su): Boost your caster lever for free a
few times per day. This isn't going to hugely boost your effectiveness, but it's extra
duration on buffs or damage on your direct damage spells when you need it.

Walk the Lines (Su): Excellent teleportation effect. You
can go basically anywhere in the world several times per day for free.

Empty Body (Su): Very useful both defensively and for
infiltration or escape.

The Nature Fang is a confusing concept. It combines some features of the Slayer
with the Druid's spellcasting, but manages to not be a Ranger. For some reason Nature
Fang gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack, but no more than that. As a concept, Nature Fang would
make a lot more sense as a Ranger archetype. As it stands, Druids don't really have a
good way to make use of Studied Target, especially considering the Nature Fang gives
up Wild Shape.

Studied Target (Ex): You can only maintain one studied
target, but this is otherwise the same as the Slayer's version. I don't think that
you can apply the DC boost to your spells because Studied Target specifies "Slayer
Class Abilities", and makes no mention of spells.

While an amusing concept, the Pack Lord doesn't work mathematically. Splitting
your animal companion levels is completely debilitating. Fortunately, this usage
is optional. Instead, take this archetype for the Improved Empathing Link ability
if you don't plan to use Wild Shape a ton of times in a day.

Pack Bond (Ex): Splitting your animal companion levels
is a hugely dangerous prospect. Doing so dramatically effects your companions' hit
points, AC, and their ability to hit and deal damage. If you split your levels evenly,
you may find that having even two companions makes them completely useless.

Improved Empathic Link (Su): This is fantastic for
scouting. If you have a companion smart or obedient enough to follow complex
directions, you can send them in ahead of you to look for danger.

Finally an ecosystem-based druid archetype that can travel. The abilities are all
well themed to the plains, and may even function best while there, but the abilities
are still useful outside of your native environment.

Plains Traveler (Ex): If your campaign takes place in
an open plain, this shoots right up to blue. The
bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.

Run Like the Wind (Ex): Permanent speed bonuses are
fantastic on any character.

Savanna Ambush (Ex): Very interesting, but because
Druids are not really stealth characters, this won't get you a lot unless you work
to bring it into play. The ability specifies "natural surroundings", so you can use
it even outside of your native environment.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting
it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Canny Charger (Ex): Turning during a charge is very
useful, and charging through your allies solves a lot of problems for characters
who need to charge to reach their targets. THe toehr bonuses are situational, but
they don't hurt to have.

Evasion (Ex): A bit late in the game, but Evasion is
fantastic at any level.

The Reincarnated Druid is hard to kill. That in many ways is enough to justify the
archetype. However, the abilities don't really provide anything active that you can
do, so they may be somewhat boring on the table.

Mysterious Stranger (Ex): This ability makes sense in
terms of flavor, but it's not very useful.

Resist Death's Touch (Ex): Death effects will ruin your
day, and a +4 bonus to saves against them is absolutely fantastic.

Many Lives (Ex): If you're careful, this makes death much
less scary. However, the random nature of the Reincarnation table makes it very hard
to predict what you will be when you come back. Because chanhing races only affects
your physical abilities, you may find yourself with a weird hodge-podge of racial
abilities, and potentially much better stats than you had before you died.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is still great, but losing
two levels limits its utility.

Cheat Death (Ex): Fantastic, especially on top of your
+4 bonus against these effects.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex): Weird, but maybe a
little more useful for a Druid than a Monk.

Dinosaurs are awesome, so this archetype is pretty great. You can summon a bunch
of scary dinosaurs abnormally fast, and you can Wild Shape into dinosaurs better
than anyone else. However, the Dragon Shaman can do essentially the same thing, and
gets Dragon Bite and a better Totemic Transformation.

Nature Bond: Many of the very best animal companions
are dinosaurs. Oh, and you have some okay domain options I suppose.

Animal: I assume that you must still take a dinosaur
if you take the Animal domain, but you probably wanted to do that anyway.

Destruction

Strength

War

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totem Transformation (Su): All of the options are good,
though perhaps not as good as other animal shaman archetypes.

Totemic Summons (Su): Reptiles and dinosaurs, but I'm
being redundant. Dinosaurs run the whole range of summon levels, and the ability to
add templates to bring their summon level up or down can allow you to bring a tactically
relevant dinosaur into any fight at any level. Because dinosaurs are so much more
diverse than the animals allowed to other animal shamans, this ability is considerably
better.

Wild Shape (Su): Unfortunately Dinosaurs aren't the best
option for polymorphing because most dinosaurs are too large for Beast Shape to allow.
Still, deinonychus is a solid option, and you get Pounce early.

The Swamp Druid isn't quite as good as the Plains Druid, but it has some interesting
abilities which continue to be useful outside of a swamp.

Marshwight (Ex): If your campaign takes place in
a swamp environment, this shoots right up to blue. The
bonuses are fantastic and apply to Initiative and some very crucial skills.

Swamp Strider (Ex): Very situational.

Pond Scum (Ex): Monstrous Humanoids are a huge group
of monsters, and many of them have very powerful and very annoying abilities. Swarms
are annoying at any level, and being able to stand in them without taking damage is
awesome.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting
it two levels late hurts a little bit.

Slippery (Ex): Fantastic buff. Great for escaping
grapples, squeezing into or out of tight spaces, etc.

The Urban Druid is an interesting concept. In a lot of ways it's like a Cleric
with the Druid spell list and no metal armor. The abilities aren't awful, though
giving up the option of an animal companion hurts.

Spontaneous Casting: Summon Nature's Ally isn't very
good compared to Summon Monster, but the ability to cast domain spells can be really
great if you pick an interesting domain.

Nature Bond (Ex): Animal Companions are fantastic,
but some of the domains are very appealing.

Charm

Community

Knowledge

Nobility

Protection

Repose

Rune

Weather

Lorekeeper (Ex): Several decent knowledge skills, and
a free +2 bonus to all of the new class skills. Diplomacy is kind of hard to justify
because Druids want basically every ability except Charisma.

Resist Temptation (Ex): Situational, but a +2 on saves
against enchantments is pretty great considering how scary enchantment spells are.

A Thousand Faces (Su): This is much more useful for
an Urban Druid, but it's still situational..

Wild Shape (Su): Wild Shape is fantastic, but getting
it fours levels late hurts a lot.

Mental Strength (Ex): Immune to Dominate Person. Fantastic
on any character at any level.

Inspiration is a fantastic mechanic, but the Wild Whisperer doesn't get nearly
enough of it for it to be useful.

Inspiration (Ex): Inspiration is a really great ability,
and the free bonuses to skills are nice, but Druids typically don't need Intelligence,
so your Inspiration pool is going to be small.

Wild Shape (Ex): Not being able to take the form of a
plant or elemental somewhat limits the utility of Wild Shape, but Plant Shape and
Elemental Body are two of the worst polymorph spells, so you're not missing much.

Natural Expertise (Ex): Very situational, and not very
good when it applies.

Investigator Talent: One. You get one Investigator
talent. Choose wisely.

The Wolf Shaman's totem tranformation is one of the best, but that isn't enough
to redeem an otherwise non-functional archetype. Wolves are very low CR, and there
are very few stronger canines. Higher level canines are generally linear improvements
on dogs and wolves, so you don't get any abilities better than Trip as you level.
While Trip is certainly useful, you generrally don'y play a Druid to play a Trup
master.

Nature Bond: The Wolf is a decent choice of animal
companion, and your choice of domains is devent.

Animal: I assume that you must still take a wolf
if you take the Animal domain, which hurts the domains versatility, but the wolf
is still a decent choice.

Community

Liberation

Travel

Wild Empathy (Ex): This is in addition to the normal
Wild Empathy ability, which is already very situational.

Totemic Summons (Su): The highest level canine on
the Summon Nature's Ally list is Dire Wolf at Summmon IV. By adding the giant and
advanced templates, you can get a pretty scary Dire Wolf on Summon VI.

Wild Shape (Su): Wild shaping into a wolf or a dog really
doesn't get you anything that Totem Transformation doesn't already get you. Your best
options are Dire Wolf and Winter Wolf, which are passable, but not fantastic.

Bonus Feat: The Trip feats are nice combined with
Totem Transformation, but the other feats will be hard to use on a Druid.